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The Democratic Party is sounding a lot like the House Un-American Activities Committee these days. HUAC was the star chamber convened in the late 1930s for the ostensible purpose of rooting out Communists and other subversives in government, the media, and the entertainment industry. It was finally disbanded in 1975 in the wake of the Watergate scandal. HUAC's main underlying agenda, however, was the dismantling of the New Deal. The public was supposed to be scared witless into taking money away from social programs and plunking billions, and later trillions, into Superpower's glob...more »

Get them early, said the Jesuits, and you can indoctrinate them for life. The modern-day mediocricy-mongers have learned that lesson well. A friend from North Melbourne sent me through this idiocy from their latest primary school newsletter: *You may have seen some important signs popping up around the school and playground as well as a concentrated amount in the Prep corridor. This is due to our busy sign makers who are concluding their Deeper Learning experience [sic] which focused on 'how signs and symbols communicate a message and keep us safe in our community.' We have ha...more »

NATO have deployed its largest military presence to the Russian border since 1941, according to Professor Stephen F. Cohen – a U.S. scholar of Russian studies at Princeton University and New York University. “We have been watching for nearly a month a steady buildup of American and NATO forces along near Russia’s borders – on land, on sea and in the air,” he remarked on The John Batchelor Show. “There has been nothing like this on Russia’s borders, such an amassing of hostile military force, since the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.” Sputniknews.com reports: Russia has...more »

New York Times: *Taliban Chief Targeted by Drone Strike in Pakistan, Signaling a U.S. Shift* KABUL, Afghanistan — After months of failed Pakistani efforts to broker peace talks with the Taliban, an American drone strike against the leader of the Afghan militants signaled a major break with precedent as the United States circumvented Pakistan in an effort to disrupt the strengthening insurgency, officials said on Sunday. The Afghan intelligence agency said Sunday that the Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, had been killed in the strike in the restive Pakistani provinc...more »

In the Arab world Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot are major historical villains at the heart, most say, of all that troubles the Middle East today. Most Americans would be hard pressed to tell you who either of them is or why their names are historically significant-- and that probably includes Donald Trump, candidate for president of a party that once took foreign policy and national security seriously. It's the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and Lebanese *Al Arabiya* journalist, Hisham Melhem explained it in language even Trump-- if not his followers-- could...more »

*NBC:* Iraqi Forces Begin Massive Offensive to Retake Fallujah Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Monday that Iraqi forces had begun a military campaign to retake the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah. The offensive against the strategic city 41 miles west of Baghdad promises "a moment of great victory," Abadi said on state TV after midnight. Iraq's Joint Operation Command confirmed to NBC News that the offensive had begun. A senior security official said on condition of anonymity that 20,000 federal police soldiers were in action, with 15,000 more troops expected. Residents had been ...more »

*DW*: *Syria rebels threaten to disrupt truce if Assad's forces continue fighting* *Militant groups in Syria have refused to abide by the truce unless government troops stop the violence within 48 hours. The statement comes after President Assad's army bombed rebel strongholds around Damascus.* Members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) released a statement signed by around 29 rebel groups on Sunday, saying they would consider the ceasefire "totally collapsed" unless the Syrian government stopped bombarding their strongholds around Damascus within 48 hours. "We are giving the sponsors...more »

*Al Jazeera*: *US rejects Russia proposal for joint Syria air strikes* The US and Russia have been carrying out separate bombing campaigns in Syria. The United States has rejected a Russian proposal to carry out joint air strikes against armed opposition groups in Syria. "We do not collaborate or coordinate with the Russians on any operations in Syria," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters on Friday, explaining that Washington and Moscow have separate military objectives. The US and Russia have been carrying out separate bombing campaigns in Syria, where a ...more »

*New York Times**:* *Arriving in Vietnam, Obama Aims to Lure It Away From China* HANOI, Vietnam — President Obama arrived in the steamy capital of Vietnam ahead of schedule on Sunday night to begin three days of meetings in hopes of luring yet another Southeast Asian country away from China’s tight embrace. He was greeted on the tarmac by a young woman in a long yellow dress who handed him a bouquet of flowers. Several second-tier Vietnamese officials shook the president’s hand before he climbed into his limousine for a quick trip to his hotel after nearly 24 hours of travel. Qui...more »

*They are for me. *"Why?" he asked Pate. "What am I to them?" "A knight who remembered his vows," the smith said. Oddly, I've never gotten around to reviewing any of George R.R. Martin's *A Song of Ice and Fire* saga. With season six of HBO's *Game of Thrones* on the air I've been reading many things Westeros of late. The main saga is legendary for it's brutality. Main characters drop like flies. The reward for being honorable is often death. *A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms* shines a small ray of hope into the lands of Westeros. It takes place about a century before the events ...more »

[image: In this May 19, 2016 photo, Kery Eller, left, Stephen Willard and Stephen Eller, right, take a smoke break outside the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, N.C. ,where they are setting up for a trade show. The three men work as stage hands with the local union of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Kery Eller estimates in the past two months he has lost nearly $3,000 he expected to earn working at shows that were canceled by artists protesting the state's bathroom law.] GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- Stagehand Kery Eller doesn’t own any Bruce Springsteen alb...more »

Behold your new Democratic Party, people. This is what they really think of you and how they've always thought of you. In case you don't recognize her through the plastic surgery, Onassis sunglasses and the mob wife blouse, this is Sen. Barbara Boxer at the Nevada "Democratic" convention two Saturdays ago flipping off Bernie Sanders supporters. This is the same woman who claimed she was "fearing for (her) life" and was getting threats from Bernie bros. Gee, she doesn't look all that scared to me. She must have been putting on a really brave front, that poor little lady...more »

[image: In this photo taken April 12, 2016, Giraldo Carratala, an inspector with the Miami- Dade County, Fla. mosquito control unit, sprays pesticide in the yard of a home in Miami, Fla. Beg, borrow and steal: Zika preparation involves a bit of all three as federal, state and local health officials try to get a jump on the mosquito-borne virus while Congress haggles over how much money they really need. With the money in limbo, it's all about shifting resources.] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Beg, borrow and steal: Zika preparation involves a bit of all three as federal, state and local health ...more »

Last December I wrote that Ben Ray Luján, Pelosi's pick to head the DCCC-- the guy who would be in charge of recruiting, training and electing House Democrats-- was still one of the conservative Democrats on the payroll of the gun lobbyists. As recently as 2005 there were *dozens* of House Democrats who routinely sided with the NRA and who solicited NRA contributions, mostly Blue Dogs and New Dems. Almost all of them have, since then, been defeated either in primaries-- gun nut Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA) is a good example-- or in general elections where Democratic voters just refus...more »

*Warmists can be amusing: Lewandowski in particular* I have been posting about the Green/Left 6 days a week for many years, so you would think I would be suffering from burnout by now. But on the contrary, I often find the whole thing amusing. The stuff that Warmists come out with in great seriousness is often so silly that one has to laugh. And Stephan Lewandowski really is a lamebrain. Here he is He is a psychologist and has latched onto the old "ad hominem" Leftist idea that he can discredit conservative arguments by showing that conservatives are not right in the head. ...more »

[image: Star Wars - 900] A woman’s joy in the simple things of life has broken a Facebook record — and provided an unintentional reward for her family. On Thursday, Candace Payne posted a video of herself excitedly putting on a mask of the Star...more »

[image: CjEjKybUkAEWJBY] For some reason, many New Zealanders are desperately interested in who votes what in America this year even though NZers themselves won’t vote. Anway, Jeffrey Singer is an American who generally votes Republican. But not this year. He reckons that voting for "the lesser of two evils," as so many Trumpeters propose, is a total waste of your vote –the principal practical argument being that the choice of HillaRump no real choice at all -- and the principal moral argument being that to vote against what you actually believe is the biggest waste of a vot...more »

[image: In this Aug. 6, 2015 file photo, people kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., in water colored from a mine waste spill. The federal government and Colorado have made little progress in remedying damages from the 2015 release of millions of gallons of wastewater from a southern Colorado mine, New Mexico's top prosecutor charged in a pair of scathing letters sent to officials on Friday, May 20, 2016.] ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The federal government and Colorado have made little progress in remedying damage from the release of millions of gallons of wastewater from a s...more »

An expansive report on the impacts of trauma and poverty on early childhood development has been making the rounds in some of my circles this weekend. Although originally written in 2000, there have been some updates made to the conclusions and recommendations. This thing is massive and you can download it for free. The introduction is […]

Elijah Wood has claimed that Hollywood is in the grip of a child sexual abuse scandal. The actor who played Frodo Baggins in the lord of the rings said that Hollywood has been been gripped by cases of sexual abuse similar to the Jimmy Savile scandal in Britain — and that the child abuse is ‘probably still happening’. He told the Sunday Times that there were “a lot of vipers in this industry…there is darkness in the underbelly”. He also said that his mother had protected him from abuse when he became an actor at the age of eight years old but said other young actors had been “preyed ...more »

[image: Puerto Rico's Capitol building in San Juan.] SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Holders of bonds from Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank are suing to challenge aspects of a debt-moratorium law that island officials say is crucial to maintaining essential services as the U.S. territory struggles under...more »

A fellow unhappy with the cost and quality of the $49 pay-per-view Parker fight paid the promoters for the broadcast on his televion at home, then live-streamed the view of his television to what ended up being about 20,000 online viewers. Not unnaturally the fight’s promoter, Dean Lonergan, is unhappy to be losing out on that $1 million. Now, it’s true that not all of those 20,000 or so would have stumped up the $49 otherwise (they may have watched it instead at the pub, or not bothered to watch the fight at all) so Lonergan was never going to get that whole million. And it’...more »

Norbert Hofer from the Euro-sceptic, anti-immigration, far-right Freedom Party is close to winning Austria’s presidential election with 51.9 percent of the vote. Postal votes are to be counted by tomorrow. If confirmed, Hofer could become the first right-wing head of state on the European continent since the death of Hitler and the end of world war 2. Russia Today reports: The Ministry states that Green Party candidate Alexander van der Bellen garnered only 48.1 percent of the ballots cast. The Greens campaign for the rights of minorities and socio-ecological tax reform, as well as ...more »

[image: This photo taken by a freelance photographer Abdul Salam Khan using his smart phone on Sunday, May 22, 2016, purports to show the destroyed vehicle in which Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour was traveling in the Ahmad Wal area in Baluchistan province of Pakistan, near Afghanistan's border. A senior commander of the Afghan Taliban confirmed on Sunday that the extremist group's leader, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour, has been killed in a U.S. drone strike.] KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The killing of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour in a U.S. drone strike was gre...more »

[image: Police badge - 900] National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury had some words for President Barack Obama on what it means to be a police officer. Canterbury told The Daily Caller News Foundation that police officers don't trust politicians and their management, fearing...more »

- Our 'Situation in Ukraine' workshop went well yesterday at the Left Forum in New York City and we had good attendance - especially considering there were a slew of them to choose from at the same time. We had a woman from Odessa, Ukraine with us in the workshop who did an excellent job of sharing the reality of living in the post-coup country that is being dismantled by the US-EU in their project to destabilize things along the Russian border. One Russian TV channel covered the event and interviewed me after things were over. The second workshop I part...more »

Rapper activist Immortal Technique on immigration and purposeful injustice as he supports Green Party's Jill Stein for President. We're not talking about putting a band aid on a gashed wound. The Green Party takes the non-watered down positions that Democrats pretend to have. How could Obama talk about Black Lives Matter? You want to hold up a picture of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, I have some pictures of Black and Brown children killed by your drown strikes. Stop being afraid to teach the truth.

Helen J Youngabout this time last year, Free Planet did a blogpost about Oxfordshire artist Anna Dillon's exuberently colourful landscapes. *But I'd never seen Anna Dillon's paintings in the flesh, I just random'd upon them in one of my normal everyday grazing frenzies. Today, the wife and I decided to go for a picnic-walk, and I chose a walk that began at Cholsey (train station) and ended at Didcot (train station) which would take us through the village of Aston Tirrold where Anna Dillon lived, it was her last day of Art Weeks so it seemed opportune. Her work was as vibrant as the...more »

Gerald Pollock recently did a presentation (at the Electric Universe 2015 conference) on how the Earth's atmosphere is rsponsible for the spin of hte Earth... Now, you might think Pollock has gone mental suggesting that 'the atmosphere is the driving mechanism for both the Earth's spin and its electromagnetism. Forget a molten metal core. Forget a gravitational model. Gerald Pollock here suggests that the wind 'that turns the Earth' comes from charge gradients that the sun sets up in the Earth's atmosphere. Not only is the charge force more powerful than gravity (by a factor of 1...more »

As the US try to force European countries to approve the missile defense system, French officials have said they are reluctant to do so as they are concerned it would be under the control of Washington rather than NATO. France has been leading the resistance against the missile defense shield (which was recently installed in Romania) that would be nominally a NATO program, but in reality it’s a US controlled operation against Europe, according to Katehon Germany and Italy appear be on the same page with France on rejecting US pressure. Sputnik News reports: France is reluctant to ap...more »

Endorsements from Trey Gowdy and Nikki Haley didn't save Marco Rubio in the GOP's crucial South Carolina primary. Trump won the multi-candidate contest comfortably and beat Rubio by ten points. He won all 50 delegates to the Republican Party convention. In fact, in Greenville and Spartanburg counties-- Gowdy's district-- Rubio came in a miserable *third*. Friday, on *Meet The Press Daily*, Gowdy, the failed Benghazi Committee extremist, petulantly endorsed Trump. "I was a Rubio guy and Marco lost, but I will enthusiastically support the Republican nominee." That's because Gowdy put...more »

Talking of the BBC's deeply ingrained social liberalism, here's Peter Hitchens in today's *Mail on Sunday*: *There's no heroism in suicide* Why do BBC bosses love suicide so much? Every hard case of a sick or injured man or woman wanting to end it all gets sympathetic top billing on BBC bulletins. And now the propaganda soap, *EastEnders*, has treated the fictional suicide of the fictional Peggy Mitchell (played by Dame Barbara Windsor) as a moment of heroism and dignity. How can I break it to them that this is only one opinion on a contentious subject, and that they are yet again...more »

The UN has warned that Africa could be facing the worst food crisis in 25 years as the continent struggles with severe drought. By Christmas up to 50 million people will need food. ITV reports: Severe weather conditions caused by the worst El Niño – a weather phenomenon that affects rainfall patterns – in 30 years are worsening and drought has ravaged crops and driven up food prices. More than 31 million need food now and 20 million more are likely to run out this year, the UN said. A further 10 million people in Ethiopia, six million in southern Sudan and five million in Yemen were...more »

[image: In this Friday, May 6, 2016, photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Eugene, Ore. Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Oregon, adding another state to the presumptive GOP nominee's tally of victories.] Yet another poll has come out showing a huge swing in Donald Trump's favor in the 2016 presidential race, with a new ABC/Washington Post poll showing him with a small lead on Hillary Clinton. The poll shows Trump leading by two percentage...more »

Tonight's BBC One evening news bulletin began with the following headline: Referendum battle lines are drawn over the Health Service and the chances of Turkey joining the EU. With controversy over what future migration levels might be David Cameron clashes with one of his own ministers on whether Britain could veto Turkish membership. The head of NHS England says the Health Service would be effected in a UK exit caused an economic slowdown. We'll be exploring the latest arguments from the two sides, with less than five weeks to go. The bulletin (courtesy of BBC reporter Alex Forsy...more »

*of course it is.* Why would anyone even ask such a question? Last week, a bunch of conservatives, who live large in their own minds, met with Mark Zuckerberg to discuss the possibility that Facebook censors conservative postings on their website. Zuckerberg invited the group after the tech blog Gizmodo claimed that Facebook downplays conservative news subjects on its trending feature. Facebook denied the report, which relied upon a single anonymous individual with self-described conservative leanings. The company said it is investigating the matter. source Two things. Number o...more »

A political prisoner in Alexandria’s notorious Burj al-Arab prison died as “a result of torture” on Saturday. The incident was reported by Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood and a human rights group monitoring the disappearance of dissidents at the hands of security forces in the country. Middle East Monitor reports: The Egyptian Coordination of Rights and Freedoms, a Cairo-based NGO, said in a Saturday statement that a complaint had been submitted to Egypt’s public prosecutor demanding an investigation into political prisoner Badr Shehata’s death “from systematic torture.” Prosecuti...more »

By Paul Homewood http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/05/21/letters-the-pursuit-of-a-european-superstate-recalls-the-contine/ Bob Ward has responded to news, that MPs are calling for decarbonisation targets for 2028-32 postponed, with a typically misleading reply. Let’s ignore the fact that the Committee on Climate Change is neither independent or expert. They are no more than a bunch of committed alarmists, and any pronouncements […]

Mount Sinabung volcano in western Indonesia erupted on Saturday killing at least seven people and critically injuring two others, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Agency. Sinabung is still on the highest alert level and the potential for more eruptions remain high. CNN reports: The seven victims were in Gembar village in the western province of North Sumatra when the eruption occurred at 4:48 p.m. local time (9:48 a.m. GMT). Search teams comprised of police, military, Indonesian Red Cross and volunteers continue to search for other victims. Gembar village, alon...more »

Although I stand firmly by my BBC EU referendum stats, a little voice in my head is sounding a note of warning. My inner voice is telling me that my stats are coming close to suggesting that the BBC is actively and exclusively working for Remain (to exaggerate slightly) and that this must either be (a) evidence that there's a major problem with BBC pro-Remain bias or (b) evidence that I'm cherry-picking. Naturally, as I said two paragraphs ago (if you recall), I stand firmly by my stats. I've chosen to monitor some major BBC programmes, pre-announced most of what I've subsequentl...more »

A Japanese pop star waiting to perform at a venue in Koganei, Tokyo, was repeatedly knifed by an obsessive fan. Mayu Tomita, 20, was stabbed dozens of times in the neck and chest after refusing a gift and remains in a critical condition. The Independent reports: The singer, who is a college student, suffered nearly two dozen stab wounds to her neck and chest and has yet to gain consciousness according to reports in the Japanese media. Tokyo police said a 27-year-old man, Tomohiro Iwazaki, was arrested at the scene by officers, who seized a blood-covered knife. Before the attack, the...more »

Fukushima has looked rather steamy for the last few days. Yesterday, the common spent fuel pool building seemed rather steamy (5/22 at 4:09 AM): Today Unit 1 looks very steamy, although the Futaba cam shows dry streets at the intersection Dry streets and police parked at Futaba intersection Emissions uptick may have been energized by the recent earthquake near Tokai: https://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/strong-earthquake-near-fukushima.html

I was toying with the idea of switching over to ITV after Andrew Marr and before Andrew Neil to see what Peston’s show was like (I hear David Cameron was a guest) but when I saw who was on the front row of TBQs I stuck around to see what Adam Deen, Douglas Murray, Peter Hitchens and Kate Smurthwaite would have to say. The question was to do with the ‘Prevent’ strategy. “Is countering extremism compatible with freedom of religion?”. (No-one even agrees about the exact definition of extremism, so the programme was doomed to go nowhere) Today’s representatives of Islam were Dr. Riz...more »

While I'm giving credit where credit's due... It's Andrew Neil again, on BBC One's *The Sunday Politics* - and, hopefully, this link takes you to the right place to enable you to watch Andrew Neil & Co. debate the issue of the EU and women's rights with Harriet Harman. We're firmly in 'car crash interview' territory here....especially from 9:07 in, when AN lists a long list of leading female Leave campaigners and invites Harriet to give an equivalent list. She duly 'does a Harriet' and stonewalls. But it's no good. It's 1-0 to Andrew Neil and Harriet's car is out of control, scra...more »

Hispanic voters, fearful of what a Trump presidency could do to their families and communities, are registering to vote at unprecedented rates. Some Republican operatives and stategists think they can overcome that by selling themselves as the party looking out for the interests of the white working class. Well, there's an element of truth in that-- if you're talking about the segment of the white working class that puts a premium on KKK membership and rabid xenophobia. In terms of policies that actually impact the working class... not so much. Last Tuesday, when the White House ...more »

*Master unveilings crowd the aethers, as Gaia releases* by ÉirePort Master unveilings crowd the aethers, as Gaia releases. Fomentings are observed within and without. Zambics come in the rescue mode, as the living Light is curled. *Friends of the planet are gathered for the show.* ÉirePort | May 22, 2016 at 09:19 | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p2sFUY-yq

For anyone who read yesterday's post about the Muslim selfie-taker at the 'far-right' rally in Belgium - and 'freelance' reporter Anisa Subedar's part in writing it for BBC Trending - you might be interested (and pleased) to learn that BBC Trending has now posted something about the claims of anti-Semitic social media comments from the Muslim selfie-taker. And the BBC Trending headline is pretty explicit too (no ifs, no buts): *Anti-Semitic statements of 'joy and peace' selfie star* "It's a story with a not so pleasant postscript", says the anonymous BBC Trending writer. (Anisa? ...more »

*Source: Peru La Libertad (http://rpp.pe)Date: May 20, 2016* *Peru: Alleged UFO Causes Astonishment in Huamachuco* *Photographer: Alberto Mendoza* Residents of the southern section of Huamachuco are astonished by the sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) in the province of Sanchez Carrion, La Libertad region. According to witnesses, the UFO ahs been over Cerro Tucupina since early hours this morning and does not appear to have moved from the site despite the passing of time, therefore dismissing the possibility of it being an aircraft. Residents of Huamachuco have emp...more »

*Andrew Tilghman, Military Times*: *What comes next for Obama's unfinished mission in Afghanistan* Odds are, The next President will have to figure out how America's longest war ends. Here's why. As President Obama prepares to make his final major decision about the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, there's a growing sense he is likely to halt a planned withdrawal of American troops and let the next president decide how to end the 15-year-old war. The top commander now in Kabul, Army Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson, is concluding a review of the situation there and will send his ...more »

Taliban fighters (Reuters / Mohammad Shoib) / Reuters *David Petraeus and Michael O'Hanlon, Wall Street Journal:* *Take the Gloves Off Against the Taliban* Incredibly, even though much U.S. blood and treasure was sacrificed in Afghanistan, we won’t bomb the militants trying to take over the country. In any counterinsurgency campaign, foreign forces helping another country must strike a balance. They must wean local forces off their dependency on outside help as rapidly as possible. But they also must not rush the job and lose what has been gained along the way—especially when a par...more »

The purported site of the drone strike in the Ahmad Wal area of Balochistan in Pakistan. BBC *The Guardian*: *Death of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor likely to enrage Pakistan* The US drone attack on the Taliban chief marks an extraordinary escalation of a campaign that has been a running sore in relations. On Wednesday, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s de facto foreign minister, told a gathering of top diplomats from Afghanistan, the US and China that the 2015 leak of news that former Taliban leader Mullah Omar had been dead for more than two years “not only scuttled the Afghan peace process, it al...more »

*Newsweek/Reuters:* *'Ruthless' Warlord Could Be Taliban's Next Leader* Afghan guerrilla commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, a possible successor to Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, would likely prove an even more implacable foe of beleaguered Afghan government forces and their U.S. allies. The United States killed Mansour in an air strike in a remote border area just inside Pakistan, the Afghanistan government said on Sunday, in an attack likely to dash any immediate prospect for peace talks. The U.S. has not confirmed Mansour's death. Haqqani, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on...more »

*VOA: Afghan Intelligence*: *Afghan Taliban Leader Killed in US Drone Strike* ISLAMABAD/PENTAGON — The Afghan intelligence agency NDS confirmed that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan near the Afghan border. A brief NDS statement released Sunday on its official Twitter and Facebook accounts said, “Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in the airstrike yesterday at 3:45 p.m. in Dalbandin, Baluchistan.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday during a visit to Myanmar that Mansoor was targeted because he posed "an immine...more »

*Washington Post*: *Iraqi military preparing to retake Fallujah from Islamic State* BAGHDAD — The Iraqi military said Sunday that it is preparing for an offensive to retake Fallujah, urging civilians to stay away from Islamic State headquarters and telling those who are unable to escape to raise white flags on their homes. The military statement gave no timeline for the operation but said counterterrorism forces, police, tribal fighters and popular mobilization units — which include an array of Shiite militias — will be involved. Fallujah has been under Islamic State control for ...more »

[image: rant-jpeg-b] Yes, it is Sunday... Time for my weekly rant... And a chance for me to catch up on what has been happening in our sick world... Just for everyone to know, my better half did suffer a bit of back problems from the accident she got into some 10 days ago... It appears that when she impacted against a tree and totalled our vehicle she of course tensed up and it did some minor (hopefully only minor) damage to her back.... She has been slow moving and in some pain over the last week and I therefore had to take over many of the chores, dinner preparations, work around...more »

The topics on this morning's *Sunday *were, as so often, largely redolent of left-liberal concerns: (a) Putin and the Patriarch going to Mount Athos in Greece. (b) transgender Christians. (c) the Church of Scotland and same-sex marriage. (d) a multi-faith choir which celebrates multiculturalism. (e) a relic of St Thomas Becket going to England from Hungary. (f) the faith of Nelson Mandela, and (g) a dispute over the World Humanitarian Summit, with Medecins Sans Frontieres refusing to attend. The bit on a fragment of a bone believed to have been part of the body of St Thomas Becket ma...more »

*Source: EJU! and Red UNO (Santa Cruz, Argentina)Date: 05/20/2016* *Argentina: Locals Allegedly Witness UFO and Alien in El Dorado* In the city of Santa Cruz, residents of the El Dorado District, El Bastión sector, claim having seen a UFO, alleging that an extraterrestrial creature. They believe the entity descended from its "craft" and that it made an effort to get back on board when detected by locals. The event took place at 10:00 in the evening. Local residents went as far as to note that the entity climbed through the trees. Students manage to photograph a gleaming light ove...more »

For many years Dr Jennifer Marohasy has advocated the restoration of the Murray River’s estuary. Jennifer maintains The Myth and the Murray website In this short video, Dr Marohasy makes the following points: - Water resource planning is brought about by BUYING back water from agriculture and channeling it down to the Murray's mouth (an unnatural diversion); - *Peter Andrews*: Before European Settlement, the rivers hardly ever made it to the sea; - *Explorer Charles Sturt*: Australian Rivers....before they reach the coasts....naturally exhaust themselves int...more »

*That's because it is!* And that's all it is. But wait for it, yup, the reviewer uses the* N word... Nazi.* Really predictable manipulative language- Just quoting the relevant paragraph from *THR* Of course it was a glowing review. Would anyone have expected otherwise? "It’s easy* to see Peshmerga as a propaganda movie* reminiscent of those made by the U.S. government’s Field Photographic Branch during World War II, framing its *troopers as modern-day heroes* and providing us with *only a single viewpoint. *Yet if there’s one regime in the world today that the public would probably c...more »

*May 22, 2016* (Ulson Gunnar - NEO) - Syrian President Bashar al Assad would seem like a natural ally to the United States and the European Union. He heads a secular government and presides over a secular nation. It is a nation where extremist political factions like the Muslim Brotherhood are outlawed and armed terrorist groups hunted down and eliminated. There was even a point in history before the 2011 war began within and along Syria's borders that Washington even feigned such an alliance with Damascus. The London Telegraph in its article, "John Kerry and Bashar al-Assad dined ...more »

*Harvard’s war on ‘privilege’* *The blacklisting of single-sex social clubs is another blow to student freedom* Harvard University, ultra-exclusive dispenser of lifelong privileges, now claims that ‘privilege and exclusion (are) at odds with our deepest values’. Seriously. Does this mean that Harvard will begin loosening its admission requirements and start offering free tuition to all undergraduates (with the exception, perhaps, of gazillionaire kids)? Of course not. It means that Harvard will punish students who belong to single-sex social organisations of which university admi...more »

*From* *Jenna Orkin* No laughing matter: documentary on endurance tickling runs into legal issues How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds – from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist Lake Mead Declines to Lowest Level in History A Third of Cash Is Owned by 5 U.S. Companies Venezuela: ‘We Want Food!’ Lockheed Martin Wants Orbital Laboratory for Mars Visitor Logs Show Google’s Unrivaled White House Access American companies are 'masking' a $6.6 trillion mountain of debt Ominous graffiti was scribbled on the bottom of the crashed EgyptAir flight The TSA is in a full-blown meltdown

*"6 Awful Right-Wing Moments This Week: Oklahoma Is Not OK!"* You know you are in trouble when Gov. Mary Fallin is the sanest person in the room. by Janet Allon "Late-night comedy audiences are not the only ones guffawing at the country’s absurd political landscape this week. A CNN panel basically lost it on Friday when Trump proxy Stephen Miller asserted that Hillary Clinton is out to destroy the Second Amendment. “It’s true!” he said, immediately after Don Lemon said it’s just plain false. True, false, whatever. What is this? Some kind of a test or something?Here are some other co...more »

“In this early May night skyscape, a mountain road near Bursa, Turkey seems to lead toward bright planets Mars and Saturn and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, a direction nearly opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. The brightest celestial beacon on the scene, Mars, reaches its opposition tonight and Saturn in early June. Both will remain nearly opposite the Sun, up all night and close to Earth for the coming weeks, so the time is right for good telescopic viewing. *Click image for larger size.* Mars and Saturn form the tight celestial triangle with red giant star Antares just r...more »

"How very important it is, to see the reflection of yourself and to keep that reflection in sight- despite how much you have been pushed and shoved, forgotten and ripped, lied to and deceived! It seems like the number one most valuable thing you can carry with you is the constant appearance of your own reflection for the beauty and wonder that you are, and it's a fight and a struggle to keep that. If you had a treasure box filled with magical things- this would be the one thing it seems like people want to destroy or to take away or in some cases to even make their own! But you mus...more »

*"Splendor"* "One day it's the clouds, one day the mountains. One day the latest bloom of roses- the pure monochromes, the dazzling hybrids- inspiration for the cathedral's round windows. Every now and then there's the splendor of thought: the singular idea and its brilliant retinue- words, cadence, point of view, little gold arrows flitting between the lines. And too the splendor of no thought at all: hands lying calmly in the lap, or swinging a six iron with effortless tempo. More often than not splendor is the star we orbit without a second thought, especially as it arrives and depart...more »

"The Green Frog Skin" by John (Fire) Lame Deer "The Green Frog Skin – that’s what I call the dollar bill. In our attitude towards it lies the biggest difference between the Indians and the whites. My grandparents grew up in an Indian world without money. Just before the Custer battle the white soldiers had received their pay. Their pockets were full of green paper and they had no place to spend it. What were their last thoughts as an Indian bullet or arrow hit them? I guess they were thinking of all that money going to waste, of not having had a chance to enjoy it, of a bunch of du...more »

*"Bastiat the Prophet"* By Bill Bonner "My mental image of Frederic Bastiat is of him in his last days, still young (he died at the age of 49) but sick from tuberculosis and frail, his back against the headboard. He has a writing board on his lap, and pen and ink in hand. He is frantically writing his last work, which ended up being called "Economic Harmonies." It was an attempt to explain the beautiful workings of the social order under liberty, how people come together in association and trade to build something larger than themselves and how this capacity to cooperate is the tru...more »

*"Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University: * *'Politicians Are NOT Prostitutes… They Are Pimps'"* by George Washington "Many people have called politicians prostitutes. Congress has largely been bought and paid for, and two powerful congressmen have said that banks run Congress. So yes, they have certainly sold their goods to the highest bidders. Indeed, some people trust prostitutes more than elected officials. But the prostitution analogy is inaccurate. Specifically, as the chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University (Donald J. Bou...more »

[image: B4INREMOTE-aHR0cDovLzMuYnAuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tLy1vVHE2RURIUEJmdy9VZHktX3JHT0drSS9BQUFBQUFBQkw0RS9WQzdYaWpMVnppTS9zMzIwL2ltYWdlcy5wbmc=] “I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child’s vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and...more »

*"Your Radiation This Week, May 14 to May 21, 2016"* By Bob Nichols "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” - Shiva (San Francisco) May 21, 2016 – "Good Day, this is “Your Radiation This Week.” These are the recorded Radiation Highs that affected people this week around the United States and in your neighborhood. There is no way to recover from these kinds of exposures. There is no medicine and there is no cure. Millions now possess a shortened life span due to their radiation exposures. Let’s get right to it. *All Radiation Counts reported are partial Counts. Uncounte...more »

*"Honoria"* by Taylor Caldwell “This is a true story about a nation which was once great. At the outset, we will call that nation "Honoria;" but you will readily guess her true name, as the story unfolds. Honoria had always been distinguished by a strong, sturdy, industrious middle class, composed of farmers, artisans, shopkeepers- virtuous and sane and devout. But the middle class presented a threat to an all-powerful government, determined to protect the rich and the strong- and the worthless, the mean, the haters-of-work, the whining cowards who wanted everything for nothing. So...more »

“Is this galaxy jumping through a giant ring of stars? Probably not. Although the precise dynamics behind the featured image is yet unclear, what is clear is that the pictured galaxy, NGC 7714, has been stretched and distorted by a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. This smaller neighbor, NGC 7715, situated off to the left of the featured frame, is thought to have charged right through NGC 7714. *Click image for larger size.* Observations indicate that the golden ring pictured is composed of millions of older Sun-like stars that are likely co-moving with the interior bluer ...more »

*“Cognitive Dissonance”* by Chet Raymo "Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) was a member of a fine old Norman family involved in the 12th-century invasion of Ireland. He was an ecclesiastic and a scholar, the author of many books, among them “The History and Topography of Ireland.” It is a strange little book, worth reading as much for what it tells us about the mind of an educated person in 12th-century Europe as it does about Ireland. The first thing that strikes us is the credulity of the author. If he hears a story, he reports it, no matter how outlandish- from a man who is h...more »

[image: 'Dismemberment': It's Been A Rough Week For Abortionists] Three states passed laws restricting abortion this past week, Arizona took a big step toward defunding Planned Parenthood, and House Democrats failed to shut down a House panel investigating the fetal tissue industry. Early in the week, the Louisiana legislature...more »

[image: This March 5, 2016 photo provided by Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer shows Rosalie Chris Lerman. Lerman, a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp who was the wife of the founder of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a passionate advocate of Holocaust remembrance has died. She was 90. Her daughter Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer said her mother passed away Thursday, May 19, 2016 of natural causes.] PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Rosalie Chris Lerman, a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp who was the wife of the founder of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a passion...more »

*The Democratic Party stood for something we could all be proud of... before these two took over* Yesterday, a few hours before Bernie told Jake Tapper he would fire Wasserman Schultz if he were elected and that he would support Tim Canova over her in the primary, the Courage Campaign emailed their members that "the big Wall Street banks have a new best friend in Washington. Her name is Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and she's the head of the Democratic National Committee. Representative Wasserman Schultz has raised millions of dollars from big banks. And now she's co-sponsoring legislat...more »

Some people are convinced that Justin Trudeau will pay a price for his less than sunny behaviour in the House last week. Tom Walkom isn't so sure. Canadians, he writes, like to have "chippy" prime ministers: Trudeau broke all the rules Wednesday when he marched across the Commons floor, grabbed Conservative whip Gord Brown by the arm and hustled him to his seat, all in order to get a projected vote underway. In the melee, the prime minister also inadvertently elbowed Quebec New Democrat MP Ruth-Ellen Brousseau in the chest. New Democrats standing nearby said Trudeau used a vulgar ...more »

[image: In this May 13, 2016 photo, former Guantanamo detainee and al-Qaida trainee Mourad Benchellali talks during an interview with the Associated Press in Gennevilliers, suburban Paris, France. With thousands of young Europeans joining the ranks of radical Islamists in Syria, some people have stepped forward to offer to deter them. But most governments and groups trying to prevent the exodus of vulnerable youths are cautious about accepting such services _ since the volunteers were once radicals themselves.] PARIS (AP) -- The girl, speaking in the lilting accent of southern France...more »

[image: Male and Female Bathrooms - 900] Writing for the National Review in 2014, Kevin Williamson had the gall to claim that the transgender star Laverne Cox was "not a woman." Not only so, but Williamson continued to refer to Cox as "he" throughout his article. Then,...more »

[image: Bee] I tortured myself this week. I decided to look at Samantha Bee's "takedown" of the religious right for its alleged support of Trump. Sadly, it was yet another example of why some comedians should stick to comedy instead of social...more »

[image: Obama Out] A fire at the plant Thursday morning, which may have been caused by "misaligned" mirrors used to reflect sunlight at boiler towers, broke out in the facility's interior -- scorching parts of the plant. NRG Energy, the company operating the Ivanpah...more »

[image: Army Gen. Joseph Votel speaks to reporters Saturday, May 21, 2016 during a secret trip to Syria. Votel said he is encouraged by progress in building local Syrian Arab and Kurdish forces to fight the Islamic State.] NORTHERN SYRIA (AP) -- On a secret trip to Syria, the new commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Saturday he felt a moral obligation to enter a war zone to check on his troops and make his...more »

[image: Netanyahu - 900] JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel’s prime minister says his government will continue pushing for peace with the Palestinians, even after adding an ultranationalist party to its ranks. Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be trying Sunday to soothe fears over the appointment of...more »

By Paul Homewood Last week, I ran a post about the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm, showing how more than two thirds of their revenue came from ROC subsidies. Booker takes this as a starting point for a hard hitting piece on wind power in today’s Telegraph: Eleven miles off the […]

China is rapidly expanding its military presence in the disputed waters and airspace of the South China Sea. A new high-tech surveillance drone is stalking foreign warships approaching the man-made artificial islands, creating tension in the region and a headache for the Pentagon as it feels obliged to defend and provide free navigation in what was once international waters. The simmering tension between the U.S. and China is reaching boiling point as the two sides flirt with overt military conflict. The Daily Beast reports: Deploying ships, jet fighters, and, reportedly, a high-te...more »

Protests were held outside the Kedana U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan, after a young woman was murdered by a former marine. Kenneth Shinzato, a 32-year-old civil employee of the US military base in Okinawa, and former US Marine, has been arrested for his involvement in the woman’s death. The latest incident comes just two months after a US soldier was arrested over the rape of a Japanese woman at a hotel in Naha in the south of Okinawa. These are not the only times that US military personnel have committed crimes in Japan. Sputnik reports: One of the most notorious cases was ...more »

Anyone who's been watching the US political scene recently must be wondering if they've all suddenly gone crayzeee. The State of North Carolina was first cab off the rank. You see, the city of Charlotte, after years of debate and study, passed an ordinance that added 9 words to existing legislation. Sec. 12-58. - Prohibited acts. (a) It shall be unlawful to deny any person the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services,facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of a place of public accommodation because of race, color, religion, sex, * marital status, familial stat...more »

By Paul Homewood Leo DiCaprio picked up an environmental award in NYC this week — but hypocritically expanded his carbon footprint by 8,000 miles when he obtained the honor, by taking a private jet from Cannes, then flying straight back to France on another jet for a model-packed fund-raiser a night later. DiCaprio was […]

There have been dozens of blog posts about the extraterrestrial life. I generally believe that the widespread opinion that the life is almost everywhere is unjustifiable, directly clashing with certain emerging data, and the life on our planet may very well be very rare if not unique. I've agreed with Michael Crichton's criticism of Drake's equation, among other things. Geological data suggest that the life began shortly after the Earth was created. But this doesn't prove that it must be likely for life to emerge. Instead, one may argue that life came from outside the Earth – panspe...more »

[image: applepie] It was my dear friend and mentor Peter Lord who spoke of how some people spend their lives trying to make the perfect apple pie for God, only to discover that God doesn't even like apple pie. Of course maybe...more »

This morning's *Andrew Marr *programme did a couple of unusual things during its paper review: The clip mentioned in the second tweet there was of Boris a few years back saying that Turkey should be let into the EU and that it's not right that they should be excluded, especially just because they are Muslims. Both of those things* did *happen and both of them* are *unusual. Somewhat more usual, however, was Andrew Marr doing a spot of impromptu editorialising and describing the *Sunday Express*'s take on the possibility of huge numbers of Turks moving through the EU to the UK as...more »

From the Nelson Report. Note Nelson's own remarks at the bottom... +++++++++++++++++ *TAIWAN/US/CHINA POLITICS...we sent out for breakfast reading Pres. Tsai Ing-wen's much anticipated Inaugural Address, and "reviews" so far are largely positive, if not from Beijing, despite Pres. Tsai's obvious effort in Xi Jinping's direction.* *We solicited Loyal Reader opinions with our comment that we were surprised by her detailed discussion of "1992 consensus" issues, and wondered if that would be sufficient to placate Xi, if only for the nonce.* *If you recall last year's Tsai speech at CSI...more »

[image: feminists - 900] I wrote last year that the “LGBT” and feminist ideologies were running smack into each other like bulls, and the big losers would be women. It turns out I was off by a smidge. The big losers right now are...more »

Evidence and facts have emerged regarding what the “extreme austerity measures to combat climate change” that the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Obama administration and other environmental groups want enforced will actually do to the US and world economy. The New World order and their sock puppets have devised a plan to make the elite richer, while placing a heavy burden on middle and low income earners as part of their sick and twisted master plan to control the human race. The EPA Chief concedes there will be no climate impact from the climate rule; it’s about ‘reinventi...more »

New York authorities have decided to launch an all-out war against mosquitoes by spraying the public with a pesticide that has been linked to birth defects. The NY Department of Health insists that the Zika virus has not spread to the city, but claims mosquitoes are spreading other diseases such as the West Nile Virus. In response to public concern over the Zika virus, health officials are drenching the city in toxic pesticides. With mosquito season upon us, the city is going to begin a three day aerial bombardment of marsh and other non-residential areas at some two dozen sites in...more »

Following Seymour Hersh’s claim that the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound in 2011 was “one big lie,” the following quotes from mainstream media outlets offer conclusive proof that the government and media knew that bin Laden had died in December 2001 in Tora Bora due to kidney failure. All sources are from the mainstream media, many of which have since been “scrubbed” from the internet. 2000 to September 2001: Reports Emerge of bin Laden Dying From Kidney Disease In March 2000 the Chicago Tribune reports that an Afghan witness and “Western intelligence official” say bin Laden i...more »

A Russian Ministry of Defense report claims that EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed over the Mediterranean Sea due to the aircraft being struck by debris from a large meteorite. The Kremlin say that a 10,000 metric tonne meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere on May 17, and Russia were the first country to issue a warning about the potential danger it posed to aircraft. Whatdoesitmean.com reports: According to this report, on 17 May the Okno optoelectronic space surveillance complex in Tajikistan sent an alert warning to the ADF that it had “detected/discovered” a near Earth asteroid ap...more »

Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain was the paper reviewer on this morning's *BBC Breakfast. *Here he is discussing Turkey, the EU and racism: *Sally Nugent*: In the Observer, you've picked a story about the referendum, Vote Leave campaign. *Ibrahim Mogra*: I mean, the nation has to have this debate. We need to have the referendum and the people will speak for themselves as to which way we should go. But I'm just very, very concerned about the fear-mongering and the headlines that suggest we'll be flooded by Turks coming into this country. Let's put everythin...more »

*Beautiful Taiwan. Can't wait for this rain to end so I can see it..* Lost amidst Tsai Ing-wen's swearing in The Taipei Times reports: the new Administration is going to act quickly to eliminate the pro-China curriculum instituted under the KMT. The Ministry of Education is to take swift action to abolish contentious social studies and Chinese literature curriculum guideline changes passed in 2014, in accordance with a resolution passed by the legislature and approved by the Executive Yuan, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said yesterday. Readers will recall that the curr...more »

Almost all the speakers at the event "Should we be afraid of Islam?" organized in the halls of the Czech Parliament four days ago were giving the answer "No, they are or we are friends". Klára Samková gave the answer No, we should fight which has become well-known, at least to the readers of Breitbart. The only other speech that was unequivocally arguing against the Islamic immigration (albeit a bit less loudly than Samková) was one by Benjamin Kuras, a British writer, playright, and translator who was born as Miloslav Kuraš in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1944 (not...more »

New York Times *Carlotta Gall, NYT*: *How Kosovo Was Turned Into Fertile Ground for ISIS* Extremist clerics and secretive associations funded by Saudis and others have transformed a once-tolerant Muslim society into a font of extremism. PRISTINA, Kosovo — Every Friday, just yards from a statue of Bill Clinton with arm aloft in a cheery wave, hundreds of young bearded men make a show of kneeling to pray on the sidewalk outside an improvised mosque in a former furniture store. The mosque is one of scores built here with Saudi government money and blamed for spreading Wahhabism — the...more »

*Washington Times*: *Navy secretary fires back at conservatives: Will name warships as I please; no politics involved* Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says in a letter that he has the power to name warships as he chooses, in response to a former Marine and congressman who charges he has politicized the process. Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and House Armed Services Committee member, wrote Mr. Mabus to question the naming of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer after former Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The naming followed...more »

The X-47B on the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) on Nov. 10, 2013. US Navy Photo *Mark Pomerleau, Defense Systems*: *The Navy has seen the future and it's filled with drones* U.S. Naval forces are going all in on unmanned technologies. As evidence, look no further than two recent appointments: retired Marine Gen. Frank Kelley as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Unmanned Systems and Rear Adm. Robert Girrier as Director of Unmanned Warfare Systems in the newly established N99 directorate, which will oversee development of the Navy’s unmanned air, surface and un...more »

Gen. Votel meeting with Syrian Anti ISIS leaders inside Syria today. *CNN:* *Top U.S. commander completes day-long secret visit to Syria* (CNN)Gen. Joseph Votel, commanding general of U.S. Central Command, completed a secret several-hour-long trip to northern Syria to visit several locations where there are U.S. special operations forces and meet with local forces the U.S. is helping train to fight ISIS. CNN was the only television news team to accompany him. The visit to northern Syria occurred during a trip to other countries in the region. It comes amid an effort by the U.S. mil...more »

*Daily Mail:* *Were EgyptAir passengers alive for three minutes as plane burned? Experts say flight data 'points towards a bomb' as first pictures emerge of MS804's wreckage and search teams 'discover black box'* * The first pictures of the mangled wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 have emerged from the crash site * Investigators confirm smoke alarms were sounding on board EgyptAir Flight MS804 before it crashed into the sea * Experts say the leaked data indicates that the plane crash was caused by an on-board bomb or 'incendiary device' * Hundreds of mourners gathered to offer pr...more »

*CNN*: *Taliban leader Mullah Mansour likely killed in airstrike, U.S. officials say* Washington (CNN)Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was likely killed in an airstrike in Pakistan on Saturday, two U.S. officials told CNN. One of the officials said the strike occurred around 6 a.m. ET Saturday morning in a remote area of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, southwest of the town of Ahmad Wal. Mansour was the target of the strike, and a second adult male combatant traveling with him in a vehicle also was likely killed, the official added. U.S. officials are still assessing...more »

Photo of Army Parade in Rome, 2 june 2007, Festa della Repubblica Italiana. Wikipedia *Steven Metz, WPR*: *Why the United States Should Consider Creating a Foreign Legion* In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama campaigned for president promising to extricate the United States from its grinding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His administration, Obama hoped, would be known for domestic programs rather than war-fighting. Unfortunately America’s adversaries had different intentions. Obama has now been at war longer than any other U.S. president. A case can be made that America’s ongoing milit...more »

*LOLWOT:* *10 Heroic World War II Soldiers Who Achieved The Impossible* World War 2 was one of the most devastating conflicts throughout the entire human history. Millions upon millions of people died, disease spread without mercy, and the destruction was on a level no country could fathom at the time. The only good thing to come from the war is the heroics of men and women who braved everything and risked it all to stand against tyranny and evil. The following ten soldiers managed to achieve the impossible, and they ended up becoming famous for their triumphs. We definitely couldn...more »

*Best dressed Connie and Mary* This is a post about what's been happening politically in FL-19, one of the 3 or 4 Florida congressional districts being most savagely impacted by global warming. The hurricane-ravaged district, where salt water is seeping into the groundwater as the Gulf rises, starts down south around Turtle Island, works its way up through Naples, past Bonita Bay to Fort Myers and Cape Coral. It includes most of Lee County and half of Collier County. At just 28%, it's the congressional district with the lowest share of registered Democrats. Obama lost to Romney 61-3...more »

I am back.... I had to spend the last few days doing so much work and errands that I had to put this blog on temporary hold... I also of course took care of my better half while she has been recovering from the auto accident she was involved in two Fridays ago.... Yes, it has been a hectic last few days... With my mate basically laid up with some back pain, I had to take care of all business, family, and personal work and put any writings at this blog on hold..... I also spent the last three evenings going to different automobile dealerships looking for a replacement for our vehicle...more »

Do Nuclear Accidents Generate a "Garden of Eden" for Wildlife? - YouTube Published on May 21, 2016 This lecture was recorded May 19th,. 2016 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California ----------------------------------------­---------------------------- Given increasing energy needs related to global development, and the specter of climate change related to CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, there is an urgent need for large scale energy production that does not involve the production of greenhouse gasses. Nuclear energy is one possible solution that has been embrace...more »

It is amazing how the enthusiasm for apple cider vinegar keeps rolling on. In the end, it is really the vinegar of choice for therapies calling for ingestion and that usually is called for as a counter to over indulgence. Then it is really good for you. Generally though diluted as a drink is a simple way to use it. The Roman soldiers actually got a daily ration of wine vinegar in order to add to their water or the other way around. That at least suppressed pathogens from local creek water on the march. Considering that they covered twenty miles every day on the m...more »

[image: 2016 0508m] There is a subset of the prison population in which leniency is clearly indicated. All need a creditable sponsor such as a religious leader in order to allow pardons to be granted in the volumes truly required. It is bone easy to pick a case. It is a nightmare to responsibly choose ten thousand cases and that is surely what is needed. Thus sponsorship needs to be legislated into existence along with a tracking system that establishes sponsor success regarding recidivism. Rather obviously this can open the door to corruption and the threat...more »

Radical Centrist is the proper label that describes most of us. So called left or right positions are seen as radically wrong headed at the least and symptomatic of immature thinking. At least Conrad Black is in the remarkable position to actually judge the Donald on his past behavior and I am impressed. I am also impressed on his brilliant development of his campaign. It was ultimately genius but also forced the Donald to assume the role of a accomplished actor playing Archie Bunker. Do not imagine this is ever easy for an Ivy league educated person. As one who cannot help bu...more »

[image: (Mandel Nagan/AFP/Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Jens Almroth/Epoch Times)] Well maybe. The present political structure is unsustainable and will dominate decision making there. At the same time, imitating military expenditures will never be enough to make them competitive anytime soon. Sooner or later the sheer wastefulness will start to grate when it is also so unnecessary. It is better to position ourselves to assist in the change to superior political structure and to develop an active working alliance that respects each others national inter...more »

Yesterday the NRA endorsed Trump, who they are very aware once said, "I support the ban on assault weapons." Watch him slightly modify his stand-up routine for the gun-nuts. Trump changed his tune and is now singing the kinds of lies the NRA chieftains love, like how Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the SecondAmendment. She doesn't'o one does. Herr Trumpf 2 weeks ago: ""Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment. Hillary Clinton wants to take your guns away, and she wants to abolish the Second Amendment." PolitFact's ruling on Trump's bullshit: We found no evidence of...more »

*Reuters called her a China-weary leader. So true. It also referred to her "Democratic People's Party". *sigh** Lots of media commentary, but on Twitter, Eric Hundman summed it up nicely: it's all about Tsai's election, but every title contains the word *China*... Still, Jon Sullivan, Taiwan expert and media researcher at the U of Nottingham observed that the media reporting seemed to improve. I concur. Major media outlets such as NYTimes, AP, and WaPo all turned out good reports. Even BBC's report was very sympathetic. There's a lot more knowledge out there, reporters and editors ...more »

*Some pretty pictures of snow and ice that allegedly prove global warming* *I am not going to reproduce any of the pictures as it is just typical Leftist cherry-picking. You can pick pictures to show almost anything. It is statistics you need if you are to generalize. And, overall, polar ice has been INCREASING.So how come all the pretty pictures? Mainly because glaciers are always changing -- mostly in response to precipitation. Glaciers that are getting more snowfall than usual will be advancing and glaciers getting less will be retreating. And there are alwa...more »

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/past-returns-prove-trump-has-paid-zero-income-tax-in-previous-years/vi-BBti925?ocid=spartandhp A man has made so much money he can finance his own run for president and have his own private jet. But he didn't make enough to pay any income taxes. And this is a man that a public, angry at such excesses, is turning to for leadership. The Irving press didn't have the story; but we will seldom see a more iimportant one. This could well destroy Trump's chances even of getting the nomination.And, leaving the angry with a choice of just Hillary Clinton, ...more »

*Ezekial and the membrane* *Note: this data is very preliminary. Its not often I get direct messages within the dream state but this one was very clear and loud. * *I have felt since I first heard about the membrane being a living entity, that it was a neutral entity, created solely so that the illusion of separation from Source could be experienced as part of the WHAT-IF experiment that originated in the Original Garden. I could be wrong in that assessment, but since it is already in voluntary retreat and disengaging, that's not the behavior of an entity that seeks to maintai...more »

[image: In this photo taken May 7, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Spokane, Washington. Donald Trump faces a struggle proving himself to white, suburban women, who could be crucial in the November general election.] WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- For Donald Trump to win the White House in November, he’ll need the votes of women like lifelong Republican Wendy Emery. Yet the 52-year-old from the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, is struggling with the idea of voting...more »

[image: First United Methodist Church] Portland, OR -- United Methodists have taken major steps toward affirming the sanctity of all human life during their denomination's quadrennial General Conference meeting this week in Portland, Oregon. On the final day of the May 10-20 gathering, delegates voted...more »

It is now time to consolidate all the information we have gathered about the date of the Aztec UFO crash. It began when it was claimed that the date had been identified and agreed to by all the various UFO researchers for a long time. That didn’t seem to be right to me so I decided to take a look into it. Yes, in my book, *History of UFO Crashes*, I said the date was March 25, 1948. I had gone through some of the literature on the subject and like everyone else; I liked the precision of having a single date for it. I also noted that this was a hoax, one that I believed everyone in t...more »

[image: This August 21, 2015 photo shows an EgyptAir Airbus A320 with the registration SU-GCC taking off from Vienna International Airport, Austria. Egyptian aviation officials said on Thursday May 19, 2016 that an EgyptAir plane with the registration SU-GCC, traveling from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos. Meanwhile, Egypt's chief prosecutor Nabil Sadek says he has ordered an "urgent investigation" into crash. Sadek instructed the National Security Prosecutor to open an "extensive investigation" in the incident.] CAIRO...more »

CLARIFYING ISSUES It is important to separate out two issues when it comes to GMOs: 1. Safety of genetic modified products 2. Safety of chemicals used widely on the majority of GMO products. Most GMOs on the market are Round-Up ready. While there are considerable uncertainties associated with studying the safety of genetic modification techniques, there are fewer uncertainties in applying classical laboratory testing procedures to evaluate the safety of the chemicals that are widely and extensively used on the GMO crops that we consume in the US. IS ROUND-UP SAFE? This week my ...more »

And talking about News-watch, while I've been somewhat out of action in recent days, David Keighley has been busy keeping plently of fire, all firmly focused on the BBC's EU referendum coverage... ...and he's posted a methodically-detailed article about an edition of Jeremy Vine's show on BBC Radio 2 - an edition that he, from listening to it, thinks is the most biased thing about the EU referendum he's heard yet from the BBC (and he's heard a lot). Indeed, he's finding it hard to imagine *anyone* that could possibly bemore biased. This was Wednesday's edition of the Jeremy Vine...more »

Trump isn't as "un-Republican" as people sometimes paint him. Like the House Republicans, Trump seems to have agreed to making repealing Dodd-Frank, a bill meant to protect Americans from Wall Street excesses. "Trump told Reuters in an interview Tuesday that he will produce a plan that’s 'close to a dismantling' of the 2010 financial regulation law that came in response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis." Trump doesn't expect voters to judge him based on policy as much as on entertainment value and some kind of patina of "strength." He's disdainful of policy and doesn't seem to hav...more »

Two Turkish pilots claim that they saw a UFO with green lights pass over their plane as they approached Atatürk Airport in Istanbul on May 19th Russia Today reports: The “flying-saucer incident” took place around Silivri district of Istanbul on Thursday. The plane heading from the western Turkish resort town of Bodrum to Istanbul was flying at around 5,100 meters at the time of the sighting. “An unidentified object with green lights passed 2 to 3,000 feet (600 to 900 meters) above us. Then it disappeared all of a sudden. We are guessing that it was a UFO,” the two pilots told the Ai...more »

Photos by Carl Bad Bear Sampson and Buck Sampson Article by Brenda Norrell Censored News PYRAMID LAKE PAIUTE NATION -- The Eagle Staff War Memorial Run recounted the Pyramid Lake War of 1860. The nine mile run on Friday, May 20, 2016, ended with a feed for the people. Buck Sampson said, "It was the Eagle Staff War Memorial Run for the War Between the Calvary

Four elephants, including two calves, were killed by lightning in northern Sri Lanka earlier this month Officials called it one of the worst wildlife tragedies to hit the country in years. The Economic Times reports: A female elephant, aged about 25 years, and two of her calves, aged 10 months and two years, and an eight-year-old female were found dead Sunday just outside the Wilpattu wildlife sanctuary, an official said. “Villagers from neighbouring areas alerted the authorities and we carried out autopsies,” .. Local villagers in Mahavilachchiya, 250 kilometres (156 miles) north of...more »

China denies claims of selling canned human meat labelled as corned beef to Africa. After rumours on social media made tabloid headlines, the ambassador was forced to deny claims that companies in China were marinating dead human bodies and then packaging them as corned beef to be sent to Zambia. i News reports: Yang Youming, the Chinese Ambassador to Zambia, was not impressed. “Today a local tabloid newspaper is openly spreading a [rumour], claiming that the Chinese use human meat to make corned beef and sell it to Africa,” he said, Xinhua news agency reported. Meat rumours are ‘ma...more »

do you even know what degree its good for you in the northern]\ laTITUES but we know where you l;ve and hoestlyl we are comming for yoj lazy bear hunting fur wearig love life do not start talking about sustainablityh to me you artic love life th compass is all fucked we are al;l gioubg tio di so calibrate well

Around 500 demonstrations took place in cities across the world with people voicing their anger at US biotech Monsanto. The company is facing a possible takeover from big pharma company Bayer. The German pharmaceutical and chemical corporation, is reportedly considering a bid for the agrochemical and biotechnology corporation, Monsanto. RT reports: “The whole world hates Monsanto!” read the banners among a throng in Paris, marching to the sound of a drum band. #Tomorrowland https://t.co/wPLLCrfz55 RT JuanMazaCalleja: Paris: People gathering to protest against #Monsanto, #… pic.twi...more »

Shirley you can be serious once in a while and why why not is it because of all your history days and all the love that has fallen in your forest without you ever taking an axe or a saw in hand the long harvest walks in your land with fire and shrooms in the roots and moss it sinks so deep around your feet with every step and the smell is so fresh it defies temperature.

· Think Tank T " *1)An organization that attempts to use creativity and higher levels of cognition to help to make the world a better place.2)A place where neo-conservatives remove their brains and place them in a pot of boiling water. The results are then eaten just before the participants go on talk shows. Sometimes the hosts are even brought a small plate of the delicacy before the taping, to help them concentrate*" - · think tank

When we last left our monitoring of which side's angle comes first in either the headlines or the whole bulletin on BBC One's News at Six (EU referendum-wise), the tally stood at a hugely imbalanced *14 *for Remain and *3* for Leave. In the week since we've seen: 15/5 *Leave *"Boris Johnson compares the EU to Hitler, saying both wanted a single European state. His critics say the comments are offensive". 16/5 *Remain *"The Chancellor George Osborne has said the economic debate over whether Britain should stay in the EU is over. Speaking at Stanstead Airport Mr Osborne said an exi...more »

For fans of stats, here's another thing I've been monitoring this year regarding the BBC's EU referendum coverage: ...namely the BBC Breaking News Twitter feed (followed by nearly 23 million people). All I set out to do was the count the number of Remain-helpful and Leave-helpful tweets sent out by BBC Breaking News. Here's what I've got so far, complete with every tweet sent out about the EU referendum from BBC Breaking News... For you to check my findings for yourself (and please call out any ones you disagree with - and you might disagree with a fair few of them), I will col...more »

It's one of the pleasing features of the *Spectator *that it has some regular columnists who *aren't *typical *Spectator *writers. Their Radio columnist Kate Chisholm always reads to me as if she'd be much more suited to writing for the *Guardian* or the BBC. Her views are invariably impeccably *bien pensant *(as her fellow *Speccie *columnist Rod Liddle might say) and she's nothing if not *strongly* pro-BBC to boot. It was hardly surprising, therefore, to read her hymning the BBC's praises in her latest column: Monday’s ‘World on the Move Day’ on Radio 4 was a bold challenge to ...more »

ISIS security forces and senior leaders are seizing civilian identity documents from residents in Raqqa to use for leaving the besieged de-facto Islamic State capital and Syria. Fars News reports: “The ISIL forces, under different pretexts, order the civilians in Raqqa to deliver their identity documents to the groups’ officials and tell them that the Hasaba (the ISIL monitoring system) will call them later to give their identity cards back,” Sheikh Mohammad al-Daham said, adding, “But this is a big lie and Hasaba gives the documents to the senior officials of the terrorist group to ...more »

*Robert Kennedy Jr on the connection* *between vaccinations and autism* *(BTW don't call it "child autism"* *It lasts your whole life and never goes away* *it is responsible for destroying whole generations* *of families **with grief, expense, stress,* *and lost potential!)* The truth about the vaccine/autism connection is coming out of the woodwork. Now even some official reports have been allowed to slip through the ziofascist media filter...that support the longstanding claim that mercury (thimersol) in vaccinations causes autism...DUH! So much anecdotal evidence supports this...t...more »

Fee, Chris and KJ work out what's behind it all... SOURCE GUARDIAN: Gove's prison reform cannot undo the harm already inflicted by cuts In the 12 months leading up to March 2013 there were 52 self-inflicted deaths in custody, three years later there were 100 – an increase of 92%. In 2012 there were 23,158 incidents of self-harm and three years later there were 32,313 – an increase of 39%

Vietnamese soldiers in September during a parade observing the 70th National Day in Hanoi. President Obama will visit Vietnam on Sunday. Credit Kham/Reuters New York Times: *Why Might Vietnam Let U.S. Military Return? China.* CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam — The ghosts of the Vietnam War have finally faded at the strategic port of Cam Ranh Bay. More than 40 years ago, United States forces left this massive base where Marines landed, B-52s loaded up for bombing raids, and wounded American soldiers were treated. Now, some Vietnamese say they are yearning for the American military to return. ...more »

Despite growing tensions between the West and Moscow, American M1A2 Abrams tanks have been deployed in Georgia within miles of the Russian border. Russian troops controlled the region up until 2001. NBC News reports: The symbolic deployment of the Army’s largest weapon system to this former Soviet republic was part of Exercise Noble Partner which has involved hundreds of American, British and Georgian troops and runs through Thursday. Designed to bring the Georgian military closer to NATO, the drill comes at a time of growing tension between the Western alliance and the Kremlin. Th...more »

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.